Locally owned businesses in Santa Fe, NM, formed the Santa Fe Alliance to help the local economy. That was in 2003. Now, the Alliance has grown to be a major advocacy, education, and financial resource for locally owned business. Its growth and its effectiveness exemplify the power of networks for small businesses.

If you wanted to design a product for the Indian market, where would you begin? Do you even know what products are needed? Do you know how to give your product value in the multi-faceted culture of the sub-continent? Do you know how much of that market has electricity, running water, or other infrastructure that might be needed in order to use your product?

A new study by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services shows that non profits and their leaders benefit if the top dog takes time off. The study, Creative Disruptions surveyed the nonprofit leaders who had taken time off, the staff members who replaced them temporarily, and the funders who made it all possible.

It bears repeating: New York state, city, and county really want businesses to "go green." And they're putting their money where their mouth is. All levels of government, and some utilities, are offering big incentives if businesses implement energy-saving technology.

A "new" form of accounting can help nonprofits, small businesses, and the environment. No, I'm not talking about cookin' the books. I'm talking about getting all the breaks you are eligible for when "going green."

"It's not all new age theory; there are real, true bottom-line benefits to going green in whatever shape or form you can manage," says Susan Lanfray, marketing director at ERE Accountants and Advisors.

Prelude to the Road to Entrepreneurship
I teach Entrepreneurship at The New School. The class is a mix of matriculated and non-matriculated students. They range in age from 18 to 65 years of age. They take my class for a variety of reasons: some have a business idea; others have entrepreneurial instincts and want to see if they can generate an idea for a business; still others are just curious.

Ellen Shepard runs a network for mostly mom-and-pop stores in a neighborhood of Chicago. She's focused on a mile-long stretch of one of Chicago's main streets.

Instead of being taken over by big-box and chain stores – they did try to move in – the Andersonville neighborhood has become a dining and shopping destination for Chicago residents, in part because the neighborhood businesses worked together to preserve their small-town feel.

"Catalyze" is a great word, a great concept: to bring about or inspire change. It implies that a small action will cause other, bigger things to happen.

That's why the "6 Ways to Catalyze Change" list caught my eye. It was put together by the NASSCOM Foundation, an organization based in India that uses information technology to improve people's lives. It reminds us all that simple things can make a big difference.